Spring Courses

This course is the introduction to women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, that considers the origins, diversity, and expression of sex and gender. Topics include the evolutionary origin of sexes; evolution, development, and social construction of sex, gender, and sexuality; sexual difference, similarities and diversity in gendered bodies, brains, and behavior. This interdisciplinary introduction is the foundation for the minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Scientific Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.

An introduction to the social construction of sex and gender with a focus on the economic, political, social, and cultural forces that shape gender relations. Examines gender as a social structure that patterns institutional inequalities and everyday interactions on society. Also offered as SO 241. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, The Individual in Community, Teamwork/Collaboration.

An exploration of female behavioral biology focusing on evolutionary, physiological, and biosocial aspects of women’s lives from puberty through pregnancy, birth, lactation, menopause, and aging. Examples are drawn from traditional and industrialized societies, and data from nonhuman primates are considered. Also offered as CAS AN 263. Effective Spring 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.

Topic for Spring 2026: Feminist Perspectives on Refugee Studies: Theories, Concepts, and Selected Issues

This course explores the key theories, concepts, and debates in forced displacement from feminist perspectives while using intersectionality as a central political and theoretical framework. In the first half of the class, students will critically engage with the development of refugee studies as an academic field of inquiry and learn how intersectionality assists in understanding and analyzing the gendered, racialized, and classed nature of forced migration and refugeehood. In the second half, the course will explore a wide range of issues that shape the current picture of forced displacement and refugee studies, including the production of illegality, labor, queer mobilities, borders, smuggling, deportation, carcerality, humanitarianism, and solidarity. Combining rich ethnographic and theoretical texts with a diverse range of materials, including songs, news articles, legal documents, art, and activist projects, the course explores the lived experiences of migrants and the structural forces shaping forced migration, critically analyzing how gender, sexuality, race, and class intersect in shaping power dynamics, global inequalities, and migration experiences.

This course explores literature about migration created by women primarily from Eastern Europe. We read autobiographical narratives that focus on the shaping of transcultural identity with an eye to the problem of translation as a linguistic, cultural, and personal phenomenon. Also offered as LR 327 and XL 327. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.

Examines neurobiological and genetic factors that influence sex and violence. Students review primary literature from the past century that highlights major scientific discoveries that have reconceptualized our understanding of the origins of sexual-determination, -attraction and – aggression. Also offered as NE 456. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Historical Consciousness, Scientific Inquiry II.